


No more heroes

by Snippydog



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:21:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29763030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snippydog/pseuds/Snippydog
Summary: The marauder's and co go through their time at Hogwarts. There is romance, friendship and DRAMA (how could there not be if Sirius Black is involved.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Minerva McGonagall/Poppy Pomfrey, Regulus Black/Bartemius Crouch Jr., Remus Lupin/Marlene McKinnon, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy so I started writing this fic bc I was bored and it turned out to be really fun so I thought that I would write a couple of chapters and see if people like it. In this chapter there are no Triggers. If you enjoy please follow me on Tiktok and instagram @70snerdytimes for updates. HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!!!

An 11 year old James Charlus Potter awoke with a flutter in his stomach and a grin on his face. James had a small rounded face which was always coloured with rosy cheeks and a slight contour underneath his cheekbones. He had doughy dark brown eyes which were overshadowed with thick black eyebrows that came threateningly close to each other. James was most certainly not a bad looking boy but he was nothing to stop and stare at, this suited him just fine as, if his appearance was nothing to make you take a double take, his personality astounding.  
James had the air of someone who had known nothing but love all his life. While other children might smile only when something particularly good was happening or else when someone was looking at them, James was constantly grinning even if it was just the trace of a smile there it was. Over time it seemed that his face had adapted to fit with his personality so that there were already crinkles around his eyes.  
Within ten second of waking up James had jumped out of his Chudley Cannon themed bedsheets and was bounding down the spiraling stairs two at a time to the smell of cooking bacon and sausages. Before he had even reached the second floor Euphemia Potter shouted up to him ‘James Charlus Potter if I hear you running down those stairs one more time I will personally see to it that your breakfast is fed to Your father!’ But even as she said it she was chuckling to herself.  
After walking down the stairs, the longest 20 second walk of his life James thought not the least bit bitterly, James bounded into the large kitchen almost skipping with glee. ‘Hey Snitch!’ Charlus chuckled at his son. ‘Dad!’ James groaned ‘I am too old for you to call me that.’  
‘Oh I am sorry!’ I forgot I was in the presence one of Britain’s newest and finest scholars!’ Charlus Potter shared with his son a talent for being able to say any snarky comment and it never being interpreted as anything other than a completely innocent joke. The two Potter’s also shared the same rounded face, thick dark eyebrows and constantly sunny demeanor.  
A moment or two later Euphemia crossed the room from the opposite end of the kitchen carrying a stray laden with as much bacon and sausage and James thought was physically possible without half the plate’s contents ending up on the floor. James and his father’s eyes practically dilated at the sight of so much food. With his mother James shared her doughy brown eyes, her soft black hair and mothering nature.  
Once they had all settled around the table, plates laden with the intoxicating breakfast Euphemia thought it was prudent to broach the question. ‘So James we have to leave for the station in two hours how are you feeling?’  
‘Mum I am going to the most brilliant school in the history of the universe! I am going to meet the best people I will ever meet! And most importantly I will prove myself to be the best quidditch players Hogwarts has ever seen!’ By the end of this monologue James was standing on his chair brandishing his fork in the air as if it were a sword he was wielding. ‘Ok James but your father and I wanted to discuss a few things with you. Charlus?’ At this Euphemia turned her gaze upon Charlus who up until James’ proclamation had been completely and utterly engrossed in his breakfast suddenly looked up in alarm. ‘Oh right! Ahem.’ And he swiftly drew a piece of paper from thin air and James saw his mother’s neat cursive scrawled across the page.  
‘First off you are required to write to us on Tuesdays Fridays and Sundays this is non-negotiable.’  
‘WHAT!?!?!?!? You cannot expect me to do that- I will get made fun of.’ James muttered the last part. ‘Oh Snitch you are kidding yourself if you think the other kids’ parents won’t have given them the exact same speech that I am giving you right now.’  
‘Even so,’ James muttered more to himself than anyone else.  
‘I think we have all had more than our fair share of breakfast so James go and get dressed ready unless you want to arrive on the train for the first time in your snitch pyjamas.' James stood up and left the room but just before he was about to climb the stairs his father came swiftly out of the kitchen with an expression on his face that James knew all too well- Charlus was up to something. ‘Psssst ! James ! Come here lad !’  
‘What’s going on ?’ James responded as he crept towards his father a grin spreading slowly across his face seemingly lighting up his entire face.  
‘I- erm- may have left a little something in your trunk.’  
‘What ?’ James asked his voice scarcely above a whisper partly to avoid detection from Euphemia, mostly because whispering seemed to add to the overly dramatic atmosphere his father had created.  
‘You will see I promise, but you may want to open it away from prying eyes.’  
‘Gotcha Dad,’ he turned to leave but then, ‘Oi dad…. I am really gonna miss you’  
Charlus’ eyes brimmed with tears of sadness and pride ‘I’ll miss you too Snitch’


	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyy thought I'd Post Chapter two straight away  
> TW:  
> Domestic abuse  
> Substance abuse  
> Detail to injury  
> Death  
> Grieving  
> Sorry for all the warnings. As always comments and constructive criticism is always welcome!

An eleven year old Peter Pettigrew awoke to the sound of his mother hurriedly bustling around his room collecting almost everything she could get her hands on and throwing them haphazardly into his trunk despite the fact that he had told her merely hours before that everything he needed or even wanted was already packed and ready to go- and indeed it was. ‘Mum ! I told you I have packed everything I need. If you put anything else in there it won’t close! I can barely lift it as is!’  
‘Oh Petie i am sorry i didn’t mean to wake you.’ She spoke as if not having registered anything he had said except the fact that he was awake. ‘I bought your favourite cereal for today so that you get the best start to the day as you possibly can.’ Peter clambered out of bed and took the narrow staircase down to the galley kitchen.  
Peter was a kind faced boy with a squared jaw and a very pale complexion. His hair was a dirty blonde colour and the sides of his head were shaved down so that without his usual gel spiking up the top of his head he looked as if he had a terrible bowl haircut rather than a professional styling. He had wide bee stung lips that drooped at the sides giving him a constant frown and there was a jagged scar that snaked its way down his inner arm.  
Suddenly the réalisation came to Peter He was leaving. Peter didnt even much care where he as going but the fact still stood : he was leaving. He would be able to get away from his father and with that his drinking problem. No more coming downstairs at three in the morning only to find his father, Cecil, passed out on the sofa breath reeking of firewhiskey and clothes smelling of cigarettes and sometimes something more recreational. But Peter thought the days following a situation like that were better than not, at least Cecil would stay hold up in his room under the effects of a hangover, usually. When Cecil wasnt drinking or drugged or holding a ciggy between his index and forefinger he was a monster. He would stomp about the house red-faced and angry Peter would usually stay in his room on these occasions and if Cecil entered a room Hope, Peter’s mum, would find an excuse to start cooking for Cecil or occasionally Peter. When Cecil was sober it seemed all he wanted to do was wallow in his failings (or mostly other people’s failings) and so he would would call into the living room his favourite failing- Peter. If Peter stood exactly correctly, breathed when he was supposed to and made the exact faces his father wanted, he might just get off with merely a clip on the ear. It wasn’t as though Peter wanted to please his father, no he hated Cecil with a passion and couldnt wait for the day he could stand up for him and his mother and chase that bastard out of their house, but the last time his father had called up to him and he hadn’t answered he got a scar. The biggest scar he had ever seen it was milky white and buldged from his skin at the sides it was an unpleasant red colour as if, after all this time it still hadn’t healed Peter had known that he needed stitches but if he or his mother dared to go to a hospital Cecil would simply call him a pussy and close the door before Peter could leave.  
Peter’s mother however, was a completely different story. She had the poshest London accent you had ever heard and her voice was lilting slightly despite it being low and raspy from cigarettes. Whilst Peter hated his father smoking and the like he loved it when his mother did it, she looked as if the ciggy was the thing missing from her hand. She shared Peter’s dirty blonde hair and it stretched down past her waistline with frequent curls. She had several piecings one on her lip one on the right side of her nose and too many holes to count on both ears. Peter got the sense that his mother had been something of a badass back in the day. He found black lipsticks fishnet tights and punk rock clothes that looked as though they had seen better days with a colour palette of white grey and black. He had also found many signs with big black letters written on them often they said things like ‘JUST COS YOU HAVE DICKS DOESNT MEAN YOU GET MORE MONEY !’ Peter thought that this sign was less than catchy but effective nonetheless. From what Peter had heard from his mother and father, most of it when they thought he was in bed alseep and out of earshot, it seemed that his mother and father had ‘slep together’ (Peter wasn’t quite sure what that meant) and because his mother had gotten pregnant her highly Catholic parents had forced her to marry Cecil when he was 27 and Hope was merely 19 because the couldn’t handle the shame of a child born out of wedlock. Oh if only they could have seen what the man they forced Hope to marry had done to her daughter and their grandchild Peter thought bitterly.  
Finally he reached the scuffed up kitchen and spied not his favourite cereal but his brother’s.  
Two years ago there had been an accident, Peter’s brother had died. He became an obscurius itw as just luckiy that no one but him died . Previous to his death Cecil had never laid a hand on anyone but his boys and although his benders had become longer and more intense since the tragedy he was not exactly a picture of perfection before. His name was Markus- Marky was what Peter called him. Markus was only seven and he was the only thing holding the family together. After Markus had left him Peter was alone, of course him mum was there for him but it was more likr they were two prisoners working together not to go mad inside their prison than two people who loved eachother and wanted to support eachother.  
Peter did not penalise his mother for mixing their favourite breakfasts up Loads of people mix their children up especially when they are both boys was what he told himself. But how many people mix up their living sons with their dead sons said a small voice in the back of his head. Immediately Peter inwardly cursed at himself for thinking such a horrible thought, Marky’s death was harder on no one else he couldn’t condemn her for losing a son and not then being right back to her usual. The moment passed. Leaving his breakfast untouched he slunk back upstairs to get ready to go, being as quiet as possible so as to not wake his father- he couldn’t turn up to school on the first day with a black eye.


	3. Chapter three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So chapter three is here!  
> TW:  
> Violence  
> Blood supremacy  
> Insinuation of child abuse

An eleven year old Sirius Black wake up to a massive crack eminating from the centre of his room he didn't even bother to sit up and look over the edge of his four poster bed and sure enough a moment later came the low muttering off the foulest creature Sirius thought he'd ever laid eyes on. He glared at the house elf now staring at him with its cool black eyes and a coldness that matched Sirius’ own. Kreacher was the first to break the silence ‘I is sorry master Sirius,’ Kreacher said ‘I is not meaning to wake master black only miss only my mistress ordered that I come here and tally but he was supposed to be getting ready for the train, with that filthy half breed scum Master is be fitting in well for Master is being a blood traitor. Once you are out of Mistress’ house it will be as clean as it's been in 11 years.’ creature said this last part more to himself than Sirius. He gave a sigh today was not the day to argue with Kreacher it would only end his mother getting angry and him coming to school with his bones rattling after the lingering effects of the cruciatus curse.  
Sirius hated his family but the one thing about them he didn’t hate was the Black family’s good looks. The whole family seemed to just be made up of corners and edges, they all had the same impossibly high and defined cheekbones as if they had been carved out if marble. To add to this effect they all had extremely pale skin as if they had never seen sun but the effect wasn’t of malnourishment or pasty skin it was more that the whole family were so rich they had never needed to get colour in their cheeks by working- which was indeed the situation. On top of this all the Blacks had pitch black hair that seemed impossibly soft and wavy as if it were just clouds floating around their faces. On the whole Sirius liked his appearance and in light of his going to Hogwarts, had requested his mother cut his hair short- she had not been gleeful at this suggestion but eventually allowed Kreacher to chop it. Now Sirius had a generic spiked-in-the-middle hairstyle with lightning bolts shaved into the sides, not that he would ever tell mother, but this had been part of the motivation. He had gotten the idea from one of the muggle albums his cousin Andi had sent him and even if one of the kids at school recognised it as a tribute, it would be worth it.  
Sirius had almost finished putting his school robes on, he wished he could just wear muggle clothes but that was out of the question and he certainly didn’t want to put on any of those ‘hideous, ridiculous frocks’ to use his Uncle Alphard’s words so school robes it was, when a mass of black hair and green pyjamas threw the door open and tackled him back onto the bed. ‘REGGIE GERROFF ME!!!’ But Sirius’ shouting was for nought and Regulus was hugging him fiercely with no intent of letting him go. After about a minute of Sirius’ struggling Regulus finally let him go as he withdrew Sirius saw that Reg was biting back tears. ‘Hey Reggie, It’s fine I will write as often as I can and without me here you won’t get in trouble and you have Kreacher.’ Sirius pulled him towards himself for a hug whatever was necessary to stop Reg from crying Sirius thought. Walburga Black would not like her son crying one bit. After ten minutes more of hugging and consolation Regulus finally agreed to go back to his room and change into his robes ready for the trip to the station.  
After re-smoothing out his robes Sirius took a deep breath and started the walk down the narrow staircase to the grand dining room for breakfast.  
As he wandered through the house terror gripped his stomach, what if Hogwarts was like this all black and grey and brown, with pictureless rooms and empty tables. He shook this thought off after all worrying only makes you suffer twice isn’t that what Uncle Alphard had told him. And Sirius continued his walk with a burning resolution to think of Hogwarts as nothing like this place.   
Sirius entered the large dining room in which a table too big for the room stood, it took up all the space and despite there only being 4 people living in the house it could easily seat 30 people. At one end sat Sirius’ father, Orion, in a silver ornate chair with green cushions softening the seat, by his arm sat Walburga she was seated in merely a wooden chair however there were endless patterns carved into it making it impossible to decipher a single picture. They were already tucking in to the, in Sirius’ opinion, unnecessarily large morning feast without saying a word. However Sirius knew better. Another trait of the family was that over half of them were legilimense, Sirius believed he had dodged a bullet, for it would only have meant more studies, however both his mother and father were legilimense and so could have and entire conversation without speaking which Sirius hated because he would never know if it was polite to talk to one or the other whilst they were in close proximity to each other for fear of interrupting a ‘conversation’ he hadn’t even known was taking place.  
Sirius strode to his usual seat at the opposite end of the table to his parents, this was one of the only things in this house that benefitted him. To Sirius’ surprise Orion spoke to him, usually they just sat in silence, the only sound being the chinking of cutlery or the sound of a goblet being filled. ‘Sirius Orion we wanted to go over some rules for the coming school year!’ Sirius inwardly recoiled at the sound of his name it just seemed wrong and evil. Without waiting for a response Orion continued ‘The first rule is that you need to be careful who you befriend. We will not tolerate a repeat of what happened during the summer do we?’ At this last remark Orion smiled unkindly showing perfectly level pearly white teeth. It made Sirius’ skin crawl.  
Last summer had been the best summer of Sirius’ life. He had finally been free. At some point in mid-July Sirius had snuck out of the house, all he had to do was sneak out of the pantry door something so muggle-ish Orion had never even bothered to block off that entrance with an innumerable number of curses and so Sirius had simply left. A ten year old child wandering the streets of London naturally he got some odd looks but everywhere he went it was either his appearance or his name that got earned him stares and so he had learned to take it in his stride. Finally when he got tired of walking he collapsed on a park bench and watched some kids around his age playing on the swings he sat there for an hour just watching. Eventually they left and Sirius followed suit.  
He continued this for a week. Just sitting and watching the same group of kids every day he had no idea why he did this but he did. After a week of watching to his surprise the two oldest came swaggering up to him and plonked themselves down either side of the bench. ‘Ello cheekbones!’ One of the boys said. Sirius to his disgust found himself blushing at the nickname and faintly noted the strong cockney accent. ‘We was just wonderin’ why you are over ‘ere on your own.’ It took all of Sirius’ strength not to correct his grammar but thankfully he abstained. ‘I snuck out the house and I was bored.’ The two older boys exchanged looks and it was at this exact moment that Sirius finally registered how much older they were than him. ‘OOOOh! Look Tommy my lad we got ourselves a posho over ‘ere!’   
Ignore ‘im,’ The other boy said to Sirius obviously recognising his discomfort ‘Don’t you ‘ave any friends you could be hangin’ out wiv?’ Sirius just shrugged ‘Well then you’ll come wiv us!’ They then frog marched him over to the playground towards the other kids.  
Sirius had spent 3 weeks with his new friends when it happened. Undisclosed to Sirius, his parents had known he was sneaking out and his father had followed him to their usual meeting place. Four of the kids had ended up in the ICU and the other two were dead. The only reason Sirius himself wasn’t killed was because that meant his parents living with the fact that they had to tell the rest of wizarding society that their son had been consorting with muggles.  
Orion had finally finished recanting the conditions upon which Sirius would be permitted to attend Hogwarts and so Sirius excused himself leaving his barely touched plate, ran to the bathroom and promptly threw up what little he had eaten.


	4. Chapter four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy the final chapter I will be posting today!!!  
> NO TW FINALLY!!!! I thought I would save my personal favourite character for last :) ENJOY!!!!

An eleven year old Remus Lupin awoke with a start drenched with cold sweat he hurriedly looked around himself checking everything was as it should be and then started feeling his freshly mended ribs checking that they hadn’t fallen out of place while he slept. As the realisation hit him that he was fine he sighed a sigh of relief and lay back on his pillow. Then another realisation hit him. He gathered up all his gangly limbs and ran quite uncoordinatedly even for 9 o’clock in the morning, he thundered down the stairs and sprinted into the kitchen. Remus was already compiling of a list of things he had been stupid enough to leave till the last minute mentally kicking himself.  
To his surprise he entered the kitchen to find his mother, Hope, dancing. She was singing, her welsh accent getting lost in the music  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes  
Turn and face the strange  
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes   
There’s gonna be a different man  
Time may change me  
But I cant trace time  
Remus watched entranced as his mother danced around and bowl full of pancake batter in her arms. Her face was alight with joy as she twirled around and her skirt rose- she was beautiful. Eventually she spotted her son watching her and wasn’t even fazed, rather than stopping what she was doing instead she put down the bowl and took Remus’ hands in her own they danced until the end if the song and out of breath Remus collapsed onto a chair unknowingly showing an expression of extasy on his face. Hope, knowing that she had just made her son that much happier, turned back to her batter. After the first pancake had been made Lyall Lupin entered the kitchen wearing a similar set of grandad pyjamas as his son.   
Remus shared with his mother rounded hazelnut eyes that melted into chocolate and almost yellow at times, they were deep and layered as if they were endless he also shared her small slightly upturned nose which, when he was a baby, his mother would tell him meant he was a very powerful warlock. Of course this was ridiculous seeing as his Hope herself was a muggle but even so Remus felt proud he had inherited something so obviously from his mother. Apart from that he was the spitting image of Lyall. It was almost as if someone had copied and pasted Remus’ father and changed a couple of features. The mop of long blonde curls, his small slightly thin lips, his jutting chin and his gangly frame had all been passed down from his father.  
By the time his mother had stacked up a good few pancakes and plonked them down in front of him, Remus could hear almost feel his father’s stomach rumbling and aching with hunger and although he himself was hungry, he was always hungry, he pushed the high piled plate across the small table towards his father. ‘Dad you have that one I’ll wait for the next round.’  
‘No son it is your special day I’ll wait.’  
‘Oh yeah my special day plus hundreds of other kids up and down the country,’ Lyall chuckled at Remus’ dry sense of humour he knew well enough he got that from Hope. ‘Seriously its fine look mum is almost done with the second round anyway.’ Hope was indeed piling a plate high with Pancakes as they spoke.  
‘Alright then. Do you know what? I miss the days when only Hope could persuade my stubborn arse.’ Hearing his mother’s tinkering bell-like laugh only encouraged Remus ‘AH well I only became a master persuader of stubborn arses after I learned from the best!’ At that moment Hope came over carrying two massive plates of food and set one down in front of Remus and one in front of herself.  
Within minutes the entire plate of food that had once been in front of Remus and Hope was gone and they both looked up to see Lyall staring up at them in apparent disbelief. ‘I will never understand where you two get your appetites from.’ It was true that Remus found himself wondering whether his constant eating was a result of his ‘condition’ or just a trait he had received from his mother It was nice of him to think even just for a second that something strange about him wasn't the result of his condition but just of himself.  
Just then Lyall looked up from breakfast and glanced at hope saying ‘Hope would you like to do the honours?’ She responded ‘Most certainly.’ and began to run through a whole list of things that they had devised for Remus to do once he got to Hogwarts, needless to say he had already written that exact list one for himself and one for his parents he was about to say exactly this when Lyall slapped his thigh and said ‘Right.’ Remus knew immediately purely from his father’s discomfort what this was about. ‘When you arrive you will be taken to the great hall to have dinner after this Professor McGonagall and she will tell you to come to her office later. Once you arrive she will run you through the protocol for the full moon.’ Lyall wasn’t looking at Remus instead he was staring at a space just above his shoulder and had visibly paled. Hope obviously sensing the tension stood quite abruptly then she walked around Lyall’s chair and pulled Remus into a bone cracking hug. Rémus almost melted into her and when she withdrew Remus saw there was nothing but love in those Golden eyes and instantly he felt immensely better. Hope cleared her throat and said in an authoritative tone ‘Remus go upstairs and put on your best clothes, Lyall can you load Remus’ things into the car and I am going to have a martini because my little angel is leaving the nest!’ She fake sobbed this last part and immediately Remus and Lyall stood and went to perform their tasks each feeling a pound lighter after that breakfast and chuckling to themselves.


	5. Chapter five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi thought I might post Chapter five today :) Hope you enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!

Remus:  
Remus almost ran through the station at kings cross and was getting some very angry looks from several of the suit clad people trying to go the opposite way. One extremely angry looking man even shoved his middle finger up to Remus and it took a 6’4 Lyall to scare him away. ‘Mum Dad please can we hurry up we will be late!’  
‘Remus we are 30 minutes early love, we are not going to be late.’ Hope responded in a fruitless attempt to get her earnest son to slow down.  
‘There are so many things that could go wrong! My trunk could break, the train might fill up, the ticket might not be right, the barrier might be faulty, THERE ARE AN UBANDANCE OF THINGS THAT COULD GO WRONG SO WILL YOU PLEASE HURRY UP!’ All throughout this speech he had been purposely striding as quickly as the trolley holding his trunk would allow him too and so Lyall and Hope had fallen behind but eventually they caught up to him at the barrier.  
‘Er Dad?’  
‘Yes?’  
‘That barrier doesn’t look even remotely magical to me.’ But even as he had said it he caught a whiff of a most intoxicating smell emanating from the stone arch- magic. It filled his senses and made him desperately want to break through the barrier to further bathe in that aroma.  
‘I assure you this is the right one! Watch!’ Lyall ran a full pelt towards the brick wall and Remus braced himself for the inevitable crack of bones that was about to come. But none came. Lyall had simply vanished into thin air no trace of him was left Remus couldn’t even smell him any longer.   
‘Ok lovie why don’t you run through and I will meet you on the other side?’ Remus was hesitant to leave her on her own but eventually he relented and positioned his trolley at the wall steadying himself to either come out perfectly fine the other side or smash a few more ribs. Remus took a deep breath and ran as hard and fast as he could at the very solid wall. There was a moment when Remus was sure he had collided with the stone and he would reappear nowhere but on the floor in pain and humiliated in front of a station full of people.   
Remus only opened his eyes when he heard the screech of an owl. What he saw took his breath away.  
James:  
James had grown up around magic all his life, he had never existed without it, never known a life without magic but the scene that he was now surveying was something else entirely. It was just so loud! There were mothers yelling about forgotten wands pets and the like, Owls squawking at the top of their lungs, children sobbing, shouts of goodbye and the whistle of the train signalling that they only had 5 minutes to board the train. Euphemia suddenly let out a shriek and knowing what was about to happen he braced himself for the impact. Charlus and Euphemia were clutching their only sone to them their pride and joy was leaving. By the time the excruciatingly long hug had ended both Charlus and Euphemia had tears streaming down their faces and even James was on the verge Merlin’s saggy left bollock it’s the first day and I am already crying. Now seemed to be a good time to depart and James wanted to get away quickly before his mother could pull him into another completely embarrassing hug.  
For some reason James had been under the impression that once he was on the train he would hear chants of ‘Hey Potter!’ ‘How you doing James!?’ or ‘JP my man how are you!?’ however it quickly became apparent to him that this was in fact a fantasy and he set to work finding a compartment. There was one entirely empty apart from one where there sat a blonde-haired boy with impossibly long legs. Suddenly the boy looked up from his book and caught James staring at him. James flushed at being caught and went even redder when the boy smirked and promptly stuck his middle finger up, turning back to his book. James was utterly mortified and was just about to continue his search for a partly empty carriage when something int the back of his mind forced him to turn around and in one swift movement he was in the compartment sitting opposite the boy. ‘Hey I’m James Potter.’ And James stuck out his hand for Remus to shake.  
The boy glanced down at James’ outstretched hand and began laughing like an insane person- almost cackling. James was absolutely bewildered and immediately glanced down at his clothes convinced there was something on it. Apparently sensing James’ confusion the other boy managed to spit out between giggles ‘I am so sorry James,’ he stopped again to stifle a laugh and James registered he spoke with a Scottish accent ‘But you were staring at me I swore at you and you looked like a deer in headlights and somehow you come in here and try to shake my hand.’ James hadn’t even realised that his hand was still outstretched and promptly drew it back grinning sheepishly. By now the boy’s laughter had thankfully subsided and they sat staring at each other in silence for thirty seconds until Remus said ‘Y’know James I think after people introduce themselves they usually ask who the other person is.’  
‘Oh ye right sorry! Who are you then?’  
‘Remus Lupin.’  
‘You are never! That’s unfortunate mate!’  
‘Oh yeah because James Potter is such a brilliant name!’  
‘I will have you know that the name Potter is whispered all around the country!’ While James desolved into laughter Remus muttered something under his breath that James didn’t quite catch. ‘Sorry Remus I didn’t quite catch that?’ ‘Oh I just said you were a pureblood that’s all.’ Remus shrugged and turned back to his book.  
‘Wha- I mean how did you know?’  
‘Well you we walking along the corridor expecting to be welcomed like royalty for starters, you shouted Godric when you were laughing, your accent is the poshest I’ve ever heard and you have colour coordinated your outfit in red and gold the Gryffindor house colours if I remember correctly. Oh and you confirmed my suspicion just now.’ Remus shrugged again and began whistling a song to which James didn’t know the tune. James felt utterly dumbfounded and instantly knew. This kid was going to be his best friend.  
Sirius:  
Sirius stomped back from the Black family compartment, at least this what it was known as to the other students, they had requested his presence and when he got there he found many of his beloved inbred identical cousins sat around awaiting to tell him what it meant to be a Black at Hogwarts. Sirius had listened to them drone on about his pureblood privilege and duties as long as he possible could without throwing up however when he arrived to find Lucius Malfoy clutching the hand of Narcissa and his hand disappearing round the base of her spine, he thought he might not be the only one. Lucius and Narcissa had been forced to enter into an engagement with each other to Lucius’ obvious pleasure and Narcissa’s not so obvious disgust. Indeed Sirius might not even know Narcissa was than less than happy with this arrangement if he had not woken one night to the sound of Narcissa crying to her sister Bellatrix sobbing and whispering things like ‘I dreamt it again, that is everynight since it happened. I keep replaying what he did to me over and over in my head. I can’t marry him Bella.’ At the time Sirius hadn’t known what she had been referring to but seeing how uncomfortably she was sitting in that carriage and how low Lucius’ fingers had been on her back, Sirius felt he could probably guess.  
Sirius had been searching for a carriage for over a quarter of an hour when he finally stumbled a completely empty one where two boys sat alone, both having obviously just recovered from fits of laughter. One of them was looking at the other with blatant fascination and Sirius had to supress and snort of derision. He had a mess of black hair on his head which he kept running his fingers through as if to keep it from falling down lest it look like he hadn’t just stepped off the Quidditch pitch. He seemed like he had a good nature though and so Sirius turned his attention to the other boy. He was stretched out across the seat his impossibly long legs barely fitting across the seat with a book on his lap which he was absolutely absorbed in. Sirius inwardly groaned -a book worm- no matter once he was in there then the boy would surely stop reading.  
Sirius stepped inside rather grandly and pronounced to the compartment at large ‘I am Sirius!’ There was a silence during which Sirius grinned more to himself than either of the two boys, pleased with the reaction he had received. ‘Oh bloody hell not another posh boy!’ The boy stretched along the seat shouted too loudly for Sirius’ liking and in a hearty Scottish accent. The two boys delved into raucous laughter and Sirius just stood mouth slightly open convinced that the world must have gone mental.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I got so excited because one person left a Kudos! They made me so happy so thankyou!!!! I love writing from Remus' perspective- he has so many opinions about everything :)

James:  
James couldn’t stop laughing his insides hurt and he was gasping for air but every time he started to calm down he would look over at Remus they would make eye contact and immediately start laughing all over again. By the time they were even close to stopping James noticed that Sirius’ face was going slowly from haughty and proud to quite irritated and put out. 

James saw Remus look at Sirius’ face and instantly Remus’ laughter increased. Soon it was only Remus laughing and Sirius realising that if he was to stay stood waiting for Remus’ laughter to subside the train would have started. James slid to the opposite side of his bench to allow room for Sirius to sit down beside him. Sirius however had other plans. He strode away from James and almost threw Remus’ feet off the seat and sat down, Sirius didn’t seem to notice but the moment Remus’ feet touched the floor he let out a sharp intake of air and winced, before drawing his knees up to his chest.

Sirius addressed James first ‘Let me guess hmmmm a Potter?? And I believe the Potters have only one son so then you are James. Nice to meet you.’

‘Blimey! Remus, he’s better than you!’

‘Wow Remus is even more embarrassing than Sirius!’ Sirius smirked at Remus who kept his gaze fixed on the book he was balancing on the top of his knees. 

They sat in silence for a moment. There was obvious tension between Sirius and Remus so James decided not to speak although he was slightly put out that Sirius wasn’t talking to him but decided not to dwell on it. Eventually Remus began to whistle a tune that was totally foreign to James but he watched as Sirius’ eyes lit up with recognition.  
And after a minute he began to whistle alongside Remus who stopped abruptly looking and Sirius with a mixture of surprise and approval. ‘You know Life on Mars?’ Remus asked with raised eyebrows. 

‘Hunky Dory 1971 David Bowie.’ Sirius sat grinning like an idiot at Remus who was so obviously trying not to roll his eyes that James struggled to refrain from snorting with laughter. ‘Is that why?’ Remus said gesturing to the side of his head. Sirius practically glowed with pride and nodded slowly. Remus jumped towards him to get a closer look at the lightning bolts on either side of Sirius’ head Sirius didn’t even flinch as Remus began studying the shaved parts of his head.

James, to whom this was all completely alien sat bemused and bewildered watching as Remus positioned his face barely an inch from Sirius and abruptly sat back to his original position with the book lying forgotten at his feet. 

Sirius seemed suitably pleased with Remus’ attention back on him and, just like any other person who had spent more than ten minutes in James’ presence, Sirius soon found out about James obsession with Quidditch. Around halfway through their Quidditch conversation, James wasn’t paying attention, Remus had picked up his book again and was now engrossed.

James and Sirius were in the middle of an arm wrestling match when a stream of fiery red hair knocked their arms apart. A girl ran through their compartment rather hurriedly and instantly sat herslf down by the window not looking at any of them. 

Remus:  
Remus had been so startled by the girl that had entered their compartment that he had dropped it, as he bent down a familiar smell caught his nose. It was tangy and salty ugh Remus inwardly groaned she was crying what kind of person turns up to school on the first day blubbing.

Judging by Sirius’ and James’ expressions they had no idea what was happening so Remus let out a sigh and proceeded to kneel down beside the girl. Remus thought if her eyes weren’t bloodshot from crying she could have been quite attractive, She had a small button nose, a smattering of freckles across her nose not unlike Remus’ own, emerald green eyes and of course that flame red hair.

Remus surprised even himself when he spoke to her in an extremely soft voice that he did not entirely recognise as his own. ‘Hey lovie, whatsamatter?’ Finally Sirius and James seemed to have caught on that the girl was upset and were looking at Remus as if he were mental. Lily too was looking at him with curiosity and was in the process of opening her mouth to speak when she was interrupted.

A sallow faced boy entered the compartment, he was already in his school robes, he had pale sallow face, dark almost black eyes and a haughty demeanour. Remus thought he was actually quite similar to Sirius with his black hair and sullen disposition but unlike Sirius apparently he either felt no need to be the centre of attention or else he did not think it worth the trouble to introduce himself, Remus felt that the latter would prove to be true as the new boy seemed to have eyes for no one but the red-haired girl. 

The new boy crossed the compartment and promptly took Remus’ vacated seat. The new boy glared at Remus for a moment and Remus, getting the feeling that that the new boy was much better equipped to deal with this situation went and sat on the side of James that was closest to the door. James and Sirius was now staring intently and the girl and boy, Remus attempted to catch their eyes and give them a stern look but only Sirius caught it and he blatantly ignored.  
‘I don’t want to talk to you.’ The girl said in an oddly constricted voice

‘Why not?’  
‘Tuney h-hates me because we saw that letter from Dumbledore.’ This piqued Remus’ interests. Who was this Tuney and why was she writing to Dumbledore.

‘So what?’ At this Lily threw him a deeply angry and hurt look. Remus felt James shift beside him as if to get up and defend the girl’s honour, feeling as though this would do nothing but offend the girl Remus tugged down James shoulder. Remus was much stronger that James so eventually he relaxed and proceeded to listen to the conversation.

‘So she is my sister!’ Remus thought that Tuney didn’t sound like an adult the way Lily was talking about her so she was either a student, a future student or potential student.

‘She’s only a---' Remus inwardly groaned. So he was part of that lot. Remus knew he was about to say muggle, of course he was! That meant that Lily was either muggleborn or this ‘Tuney’ was a squib. Lily did not seem to notice this however, too intent of wiping the tears from her face with her sleeve.

‘But we’re going! This is it! We’re off to Hogwarts!’ In spite of herself Lily smiled and Remus was glad that the new boy was finally making headway with her. Remus desperately wanted them to read so that he could get on with his book. 

‘You’d better be in Slytherin.’ Remus thought this a peculiar thing to say. Personally he didn’t are which house he ended up in, although Ravenclaw sounded quite good, he thought it a step too far to tell others which house they ought to be in. Remus’ reaction was nothing compared to James’ and Sirius’. James sat bolt upright and his eyes glinted  
with slightly evil mischief and Sirius’ eyes clouded over and drifted to his feet and his smirking face drooped into a disgusted frown .

‘Slytherin? Who wants to be in Slytherin? I’d leave wouldn’t you?’ James directed this last question at Sirius perhaps sensing he wouldn’t get the answer he desired from Remus. Sirius who had been scuffing his boots along the carpeted floor looked up and responded with a sadness in his voice. ‘My whole family have been in Slytherin,’ He said plainly. 

‘Blimey and I thought you seemed alright!’ Remus thought this was very unfair especially in the presence of two people who obviously wanted to go to Slytherin, which there was nothing wrong with, and gave James a reproachful look.

‘Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?’ Before Sirius had even finished his sentence James had risen to his feet raising an invisible sword above his head ‘Gryffindor where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad.’ If Remus was a bit more fond of confrontation he would have teased James for his pathetic display but at this moment he thought it better not to anger James. 

Luckily the mystery boy did this for him and made a small disparaging noise. Quick as a whip James turned to him ‘Got a problem with that?’ Remus found this a bit rich seeing as James had just openly insulted mystery boy’s chosen house.

‘If you’d rather be brawny than brainy—’ This wasn’t quite fair in Remus’ opinion but he was not about to squander his streak of not interjecting his opinions, especially since they would do no good either way. The mystery girl stood up quickly and after giving James and Sirius a scolding look that put Remus’ to shame she said ‘Come on, Severus, let’s find another compartment!’

‘Oooh..’ Both James and Sirius tried to imitate her lofty voice which Remus thought was not all that different than their own, it was the same pitch at least. On their way out James attempted to trip up Severus which Remus thought was very uncalled for. Just before the Compartment door slammed Sirius called out ‘See ya Snivellus!’


	7. Chapter seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Reference to domestic abuse  
> Sirius being a pratt  
> James being a wanker  
> Remus having too many opinions  
> Heyyyyy!!! Before you read, if you are American a bag-for-life is a massive carrier bag or plastic shopping bag!!!

Sirius:

Sirius was still laughing at his own joke when Remus stomped over to the seat Severus had just vacated to pick up his book and instead of sitting in his former seat he went to where the ginger girl had been sitting and hid behind his book with an irritated sigh. Sirius glanced over at James who shrugged his shoulders signalling that he didn’t know what Remus was so annoyed about. Either finally deciding that he needed to find out Sirius asked Remus ‘Did you like my Snivellus joke Remus?’ 

‘Not particularly.’ Remus responded as if he had not a care in the world but after years of biting back anger at his parents, Sirius could tell he was annoyed.

‘Oi! Why have you got a stick up your arse?’ Remus turned his head slowly to glance at him and looked him up and down with an expression of disdain. Almost immediately Sirius blushed made uncomfortable by Remus’ gaze. ‘I-I mean you just seem a little…. Annoyed?’ James was looking at him as if he had gone mad and mouthed what Sirius thought could have been Why did you ask him? Ignoring this Sirius turned his attentions back to Remus. 

Remus placed the book on the sill and twisted his body round so that his feet were on the floor which looked quite uncomfortable with his long legs. ‘Let’s see I, to use your charming turn of phrase, have a stick up my arse because you behaved like an absolute wanker and completely insulted that guy and probably made that girl even more upset than she was before. And you can stop grinning!’ Remus turned his attentions back on James ‘You were just as much a pratt as he was! What was with that whole Gryffindor where dwell the brave at heart thing? I give my congratulations to that Severus guy for not laughing in your faces!’ 

‘Oi!’ Now it was Sirius’ turn to get angry. ‘That guy had it coming to him!’

‘For what? Wanting to be in Slytherin? That is just as much a crime as wanting to be in Gryffindor!’

James, who up until this point had still been recovering from his telling off from Remus, finally spoke up. ‘Slytherins are evil though!’

‘How can you possibly say that!? To make a generalisation like that is ridiculous! Did you know Merlin was a Slytherin?’ Remus looked at the other two boys and when neither of them said anything he continued ‘Ha why should I be surprised your selective memory has probably blocked out anything good about Slytherin so that you can continue to be a guilt-free discriminators!’ Sirius opened his mouth to speak but before he could Remus continued his rant. ‘James here might not have the foggiest who you really are but I know exactly who you are Sirius BLACK and don’t think for a moment that I don’t know what your family is about. You may think that being prejudiced about the very community that you whole family holds in high esteem makes you different, better than them, but I am here to tell you that it doesn’t. It makes you just as bad!’ 

And with that Remus stalked out of the compartment leaving James and Sirius in stricken silence. Suddenly the door opened again and Sirius looked up to see Remus back ‘And by the way when you behave like a dickhead and somebody has a problem with it that, does not give you the right to insinuate that they have a stick up their arse!’ Remus slammed the door for a second time.

‘Crikey whoever has him in their dormitory is going to need a swear jar.’ James said a wicked grin on his face while Sirius desolved into delirious laughter, Remus’ words about his family hovering over his head like a dark cloud.

Peter: 

Peter backed quickly down the corridor sighing with relief. He had been shut in a compartment with a load of what he assumed were 6th year girls wearing so much perfume that Peter thought he might keel over from lack of clear air if he didn’t get out of there soon. He had finally escaped their clutches and was frantically searching for a compartment to change into his school robes in, preferably alone so that no one would see the bruises on his ribcage his father had given him as a going away present. 

He was staring into all the compartments when he collided with something and fell back on his arse. Looking up he saw another boy, he was blonde- the same as Peter but unlike Peter he was extremely skinny to the point where he looked malnourished and he was glaring at Peter with a passion. Trying to match this Peter stared right back until the boy, deciding that they could assert their dominances while standing attempted to collect up his gangly limbs as if he wasn’t aware of just how long they were. 

When he stood his legs made up half his body mass if not more and he towered over Peter who was broad and brawny but was at least a head shorter than Remus. Feeling as though he needed to make up for his height, or rather his lack thereof, Peter shouted with an anger that shocked even himself ‘What the fuck do you think you are doing?’ 

‘Me? if you don’t want to end up on the floor maybe you should actually look in the direction you are going!’ The tall boy spoke with a strong Scottish accent that was almost foreign to Peter who had never been away from Wales except from now. Peter sized up the tall boy for a moment before sticking his hand out ‘Peter.’ The boy grasped his hand and responded ‘Remus. Cmon I think there was an empty compartment down this way and we can change into our robes.’ Peter gratefully followed thinking that boy could be a good ally in Hogwarts.

They did indeed find an empty compartment mid-way down the train. Once they were changed they spoke for a moment before both pulling out a book and sinking into companionable silence occasionally asking something of the other. After around 30 minutes a plump witch with extremely curly hair, wheeling a trolley with the largest selection of treats that Peter had ever seen in his life. There were boxes upon boxes of sweets that looked like jelly beans, boxes that had chocolate written upon them in calligraphic letters, face sized swirling lollies and so, so much more. Peter noticed that Remus’ eyes were widened in awe as well and the trolley witch slid their compartment door open. 

‘Excuse me is one of you Remus Lupin?’ Peter pointed to where Remus was sprawled across the bench and Remus waved with a pained expression on his face.   
‘That would be me.’   
‘Erm I have a note for you.’ She reached into her apron pocket and withdrew a crumpled note and passed it to Remus. Peter scrambled to read the note over Remus’ shoulder. On it was scrawled the letters.

Dear Remus,  
We are sorry for being jackasses so please accept this complimentary gift  
Sincerely,   
Masters Potter and Black  
P.S we had no idea what sweets you like so we asked her to put in a bit of everything

Peter had no idea who these people were and didn’t know what they meant by ‘gift’ but they sounded like the kinds of people you want on your side. Remus looked back up and to Peter and apparently Remus’ surprise the trolley lady, after rooting through her drawers, pulled out the largest bag-for-life Peter had ever seen and it was chock full of the same sweets that were on the trolley. 

Remus had turned crimson from the embarrassment of how dramatic and elaborate the gifts were and to be honest Peter didn’t blame him. Sensing that all the attention they were getting from onlookers was overwhelming Remus and that he wasn’t even thinking about accepting any time soon, Peter hastily thanked the trolley lady and grabbed the bag for life. Once he had closed the compartment door Remus started frantically cursing with words Peter had never even heard before, deciding it was probably best to let Remus’ furious shouting run it’s course, Peter amended to begin rooting through the bag looking for something that seemed to be relatively similar to the mars bars and haribos that he was used to.

Eventually Remus ceased his relentless cursing and turned to Peter with an apologetic face ‘Don’t you want to know what this,’ He gestured to the sweets, half of which were already scattered on the sweet beside Peter ‘Is about?’ 

Peter shrugged and responded truthfully ‘I want to know how you managed to get free sweets but I don’t much care who ‘masters Potter and Black’ are.’ Peter recited the letter with an impossibly posh London accent which made Remus cry with laughter ‘D-do you kn-know what?’ He choked out between huge gasped of air ‘They sound EXACTLY LIKE THAT!’ Now it was Peter’s turn to cry tears of mirth. 

Peter did not ask about the sweets again, which he felt Remus seemed grateful for but instead of turning back to their books they had long conversations about Hogwarts, the muggle world and their other interests. Peter made sure to steer clear of their home lives all the while keeping the sleeve of his robe firmly in place lest Remus see his hideous scar.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy I want to upload one chapter every day but they take a long time!!! Anyway I hope you enjoy!  
> TW: References to incest, James being dumb, references to r@cism

James:  
James had told Sirius that the sweets had been a bad idea! Hadn’t Remus said that they were behaving like those privileged blood-supremacists? And what is more privileged than sending someone an expensive gift? But Sirius Black had stared at him with those big cloudy-grey puppy dog eyes of his and James knew he hadn’t stood a chance, it was essentially blackmail. James was sure Remus would not accept this as an excuse however and resolved to finding a better one and fast. 

He and Sirius had been talking the whole time on the train and not once had the conversation run dry. James was almost in shock, not once in his entire life had he met someone with an eagerness to talk to rival his own and yet here was this black-haired boy sitting opposite him talking animatedly. It was as if all his prayers had been answered with the presence of this boy. As guilty as James felt he would be eternally grateful for Remus leaving, for the moment he had Sirius became the life and soul of the party.

Suddenly he felt someone shaking his shoulder roughly, glancing up he realised that Sirius was no longer sitting opposite him but standing over him shaking his shoulder. ‘What are you doing you great pratt?’ 

‘I’m dragging you out of your daydream so that we can get off the train! Unless you’d rather ride the train back to London although that would make these last 5 hours quite pointless.’ Sirius’ eyes glinted with mischief at the sarcasm he had employed. James felt himself going quite red about the face and so hastily stood up. James looked at Sirius wearing his neatly pressed and ironed school robes and quite literally smacked his head in disbelief.

‘SHIT!’ he shouted, and Sirius looked round in alarm and then realising James’ mistake too had to suppress a snort of laughter. James had forgotten to change into his school robes. 

‘Right then golden boy what are you gonna do?’ This time Sirius really did laugh, rather hysterically in fact. 

‘This is not the time to laugh you arse! What am I going to do? I can’t get a detention on the first day of school!’ 

‘Look mate can you have this little panic attack on the outside of the train because I get the feeling that if you don’t really will be on a train ride back to London.’ James nodded in agreement and hastily picked up his school bag with his robes inside. 

They made their way onto the platform where they were bumped and bruised against the tidal wave of students clambering their way to the castle James had to pick up an indignant Sirius twice after he had been knocked over by older students. Finally, they heard a thick West country accent call out ‘Firs’ years! Firs’ years over ‘ere!’ James’ eyes followed the sound and found the largest man he had ever seen in his life towering over the huddle of other new students. Despite his extremely large stature, to James anyway, this man was not the least bit frightening, in fact he had an oddly calming air which was only stressed in his warm hazel eyes. 

Slowly but surely James and Sirius managed to make their way over to the large man and the other first years. When the station was all but vacated the large man spoke ‘Right ‘ello I’m Hagrid keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts!’ He spoke with an extremely unnecessary loud voice and a nervous titter went round all the students. ‘If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to the boats!’ Hagrid began walking away from the direction in which the older students were walking, and the first tear followed suit, all but running to keep up with Hagrid’s lengthy strides. 

They were walking through a thickly wooded area when a strong hand spun him round. To his surprise Remus was standing in front of him, although over him might be more accurate, Remus had an annoyed expression on his face and James was all but certain that he was about to berate him about the sweet’s incident when to his surprise Remus whispered into his ear ‘Where are your robes?’

‘I forgot to change on the train!’ James whispered back.

‘You are going to get in trouble, James.’

‘Yeah, no shit Sherlock!’ James was now quite annoyed at Remus’ stating of the obvious.

‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’ Remus asked staring at James expectantly.

‘I-I dunno.’ Did Remus expect to do something about it? Surely, he would just go in and accept his punishment?

‘Of course, you don’t,’ Remus sighed exasperatedly. ‘Hand me your robes.’ Feeling as though Remus was probably a person who would get you out of trouble not into its James obliged. Remus promptly took out his wand and pointing it at the cloth whispered the word ‘Colovaria.’ Instantly the robes turned a deep shade of royal blue. James spluttered lost for words, on the one hand he thought that was a good bit of magic on the other Remus just turned my bloody robes blue! But before James could process a response Remus was whispering to him. 

‘We are going to be sailing to the castle in boats and we will arrive in the dungeons, we will then be greeted by Professor McGonagall who will take us to the entrance hall. She will explain that we will be sorted up until this point you will be in the back keeping a low profile once she has finished explaining you will approach her, address her as deputy headmistress McGonagall to flatter her and explain that you couldn’t wear your robes because what you assume to be a sixth year Ravenclaw changed the colour of your robes and we didn’t know how to fix it. Then politely ask her to change them back and with any luck she will point you to somewhere you can change.’

James just stared blankly at Remus in amazement. Suddenly he realised that Sirius had been standing beside him the entire time and he too was staring at Remus in awe, sensing that neither James nor Remus was going to be brought out of their reveries any time Remus scrambled to catch up with the rest of the first years which was totally unnecessary as within three stride he was already caught up and speaking hastily with a broad chested square-jawed boy. Sirius suddenly spoke. 

‘Evil mastermind?’

‘Most definitely.’ James responded without a trace of sarcasm. The two stranglers ran to catch up with the larger group, still marvelling at what a genius their new friend had turned out to be and thinking of ways they could put that big, bulbous brain to use.

By the time James and Sirius had managed to catch up with the others they had reached the edge of the woods and just as Remus had said there were a large group of little boats that James thought even with one person in them was likely to sink below the surface of the lake. Finally, within earshot of James and Sirius Hagrid’s shouting of ‘Four to a boa’!’ Became apparent. 

James grabbed Sirius’ arm and led him to where he saw Remus towering above the other students. Noticing James’ eyes on him, Remus grabbed the arm of the smaller boy he had been talking with earlier and climbed into a boat with two people already in it. James recognised the crying girl from the train as one of the people in the boat with Remus and another girl with blonde hair reaching all the way down to her waist. 

Getting tired of James’ faffing Sirius grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him towards a boat with two boys in it, they were huddled quite close together and whispering. Sirius climbed into the boat without so much as a ‘Hello’ and sat himself down. James, feeling very self-conscious, thought that he ought to introduce himself, so he stuck his hand out and said ‘Hi, I’m James who are you?’ One of the boys lit up at being the recipient of James’ attentions and proclaimed loudly. 

‘Hey the name’s Ludo bagman and this is my brother, Otto.’ Otto looked in surprise at the mention of his name. James felt that Ludo was too precocious and that was coming from him, Otto on the other hand seemed withdrawn and quiet. James thought that after years of having Ludo as his brother he might have just gotten used to being passed over and ignored. James nudged Sirius in the ribs and Sirius looked round in surprise, he had been staring at what appeared to be Remus’ boat where he was animatedly talking to the blonde girl sitting beside the crying-on-the-train one. 

‘Oh yeah right I’m- ‘But he was cut short by Bagman, Ludo that is.

‘We know who you are!’ as he said this, he narrowed eyes and stared at Sirius with disgust. James thought this was unfair. He hadn’t recognised Sirius when he first met him as a Black, but after Remus left their compartment Sirius had told him how he had grown up with blood-supremacists, nothing James didn’t already known. But what James hadn’t known was that Sirius hated their whole twisted outlook and was aiming to rescue his little brother from their fascist regime as soon as he could. James suddenly felt a surge of affection and a desire to protect his friend, but Sirius didn’t need protecting.

‘No, you don’t. You know who my family are, who my parents are, and you know the person I was created and conditioned to be. But you do not know me! I hate the way my parents live their lives I hate the fact that I grew up to be part of the incestuous bloodline that is the noble house of Black I hate the fact that I grew up in a house that separated me from society my whole life. But you didn’t know that, because you decided to make a snap judgement about be purely from my last name. So, Bagman maybe you should choose your words more carefully in the future.’ 

Sirius stared at Ludo daring him to look away and eventually Bagman conceded. ‘Sorry mate, but I mean you can understand with your family’s history.’ Ludo held out his hand to shake which Sirius pointedly stared at before looking away without shaking his hand. Ludo made a face at Otto that clearly said can you believe this guy? but Otto only rolled his eyes and turned his body to face the front of the boat away from Ludo.


	9. Chapter nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No TW's I hope you enjoy!!!!! :)

Remus:  
Remus hadn’t realised which boat he was he was getting into, or rather who he was getting into it with, until it was too late. Once he had sat himself down, he realised he was sitting opposite the girl that was crying and another girl with long blonde hair and pearly blue eyes. Remus was too focused on getting into a position that didn’t make him feel as though his legs were being crushed to make conversation and after a minute or two Peter introduced himself. 

‘Hi, I’m Peter.’ He held out his hand and straight away the blonde girl shook it firmly and said in a low voice 

‘Marlene, and this is Lily.’ Lily waved shyly ‘And you are?’ Lily asked looking at Remus. 

‘Oh, erm Remus’ 

‘Are you sure about that?’ Lily asked teasing at his uncertain tone.

‘Um yes I’m sure.’ Lily giggled. She was looking much better now that her eyes were back to their normal colour and her cheeks no longer had tear tracks running down them. Remus vaguely wondered where the Severus boy had gotten to, but the thought had left his mind sooner than it had arrived. 

‘Sorry about what happened on the train Remus I know it wasn’t your fault that those boys were so horrid to Sev.’

‘It’s understandable, I had a word with them after you left and hopefully they won’t bother Snape again, unless he bothers them.’

‘Thankyou Remus. So, where’s that accent from?’ Remus was just about to respond when the boat jerked suddenly, and they all let out a shriek, but the boat continued rather peacefully aside from the odd wave disturbing the impenetrable blackness. Remus let out an audible gasp as the boat sailed out from underneath the dark canopy above so did many of the other students.

It was the most beautiful thing Remus had ever seen.

A magnificent castle cast a shadow over the lake, it wasn’t a cartoon one either. This had innumerable turrets and tower winding around each other with lights pouring out of the windows that were scattered about. The more than impressive structure rested upon a massive rock that jutted out at odd angles. Remus tried to smell the air around him which for the most part just smelled of less than clean water but off in the distance he smelt magic. He could hear students shouting as they drew closer to the rock and to his and apparently everyone else’s surprise the boats began heading for a solid wall of ivy. As they neared the bush Hagrid shouted, ‘Heads down!’ Instinctively Remus bowed his head and to his surprise there was a massive hole in the cliff face and as they entered people were looking around in surprise.

They had sailed into a cave that had been gouged into the rock, Remus could tell that it had been created by magic because the ceiling of the cave was the same all the way through and marvelled at the strength of the magic used to create this opening, but before he could voice his opinions about this the boats were coming to a halt next to a smooth, rocky platform.  
#  
Peter stood up first looking a little green in the face and somewhat gracefully stepped over the edge of the little boat onto land, which he looked eternally grateful to have reached. Next Marlene stood and made her way to the rocky platform, Remus expected Lily to stand and do the same while he dislodged his legs from the uncomfortable position in which he had to sit but Lily said, ‘After you Remus.’ Remus tried to collect his legs as quickly as he could and, in his haste, he tripped and almost fell into the murky depths of the water. The only thing that stopped him falling was Lily grabbing onto his hand and setting him back on his feet. He was absolutely mortified and must have looked it too because Lily whispered in his ear. 

‘Its ok I don’t think anyone saw.’ 

She was right, of course, not even Peter, who was talking animatedly to Marlene about something or other, had noticed his clumsiness. Still holding Lily’s hand, he managed to successfully climb out of the boat and then turned to help Lily who gracefully jumped out of their boat.

Remus led Lily over to where the rest of the first years were beginning to crowd around Hagrid and a large oaken door, the biggest that Remus had ever seen in his life. Hagrid knocked 3 times and a good few people jumped at the volume of the noise, then the door was opened slowly and deliberately as if to increase the amount of suspense. A tall woman stood in the doorway framed by the low lighting behind her, she was wearing long, resplendent, forest green robes which billowed out from underneath her. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, Remus almost chuckled to himself, her hair matched her apparent personality perfectly Remus thought but he lost this train when she began to speak. 

‘Hello first years I am Professor McGonagall deputy headmistress, Gryffindor head of house and resident transfiguration teacher. If you’d like to follow me, I will lead you to the sorting ceremony.’ 

She spoke with a crisp Scottish accent which made Remus feel much more at home with her and although she had a clipped tone and severe expression, she smelt of tea and all butter shortbread.

Remus suddenly realised he had a mission to complete and with a hasty apology to Lily he began to run through the crowd to find Sirius and Remus. This was not as challenging a task as he had imagined. He found them in the centre of the group laughing raucously about something or other and they were beginning to attract looks. Remus grabbed James by the shoulder and tugged James to the back of the group despite his protests. 

‘Ow! OW! REMUS GEROFF!’ 

Remus ignored this and continued yanking him. Once they were a suitable distance away from Professor McGonagall Remus released James who let out an entirely unnecessary sigh of relief and started enthusiastically rubbing his shoulder. Sirius, who to Remus’ annoyance kept appearing out of nowhere, started sniggering. ‘Remus mate, you are stronger than you look.’

‘It’s a blessing and a curse,’ Remus said rolling his eyes. ‘Do you know what you are doing?’

‘I assumed I was wandering this plane of existence to renew life on Earth and otherwise improve the quality of life for others. If you have a different answer, I would love to be enlightened.’ James and Sirius keeled over with laughter, but Remus didn’t even crack a smile. He is not even that funny. Remus thought. 

‘I don’t mean in life posh boy; I mean about getting out of trouble?’

‘Yesyesyes I know I am going to tell Professor McGonagall that some prat on the train turned my robes blue. And can you please not call me that?’ Remus smirked, grateful that he had hit a nerve.

‘But poshboy suits you so well!’ Remus mock complained. Sirius let out a bellow of laughter and Remus retaliated by saying ‘What are you laughing at preppy?’ And with that Remus strode away from them feeling rather pleased with himself for irritating those boys.

Finally, the pack of first years stopped walking and McGonagall turned at the top of a staircase to speak to them. 

‘Welcome to Hogwarts,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.’ She was just about to disappear behind a door when James ran up the steps past a bunch of students. The plan had begun.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls ignore my terrible sorting hat song :( I suck at poetry Quite a long chapter so I split into two!!! No TWs for this chapter other than Sirius dealing with pressure from his family :(

Sirius:

Although he would never admit it, especially not to Remus, Sirius thought that the plan Remus had concocted had worked like a charm. James didn’t even get a scolding from McGonagall; she had even apologised to him for having such a bad first impression. Sirius momentarily thought he had seen a halo appear above James’ head.

After explaining his story McGonagall had fixed James’ robes with a lazy flick of her wand and directed him down a corridor to a bathroom where he could change in private. Now standing alone amongst the other first years, Sirius felt strangely alone without his friend beside him constantly cracking jokes. Sirius looked around trying to find Remus, the only other person he knew, when a hulking boy stepped in front of him all but baring his teeth. 

‘Black.’ 

Assuming this was a way of greeting Sirius nodded his head at the boy, not wanting to say anything unless he had to.

‘The name is Rosier.’ 

So, this was why he was talking to the boy. He was in the 20th family in the sacred 28, Sirius felt his stomach sink, it was like he had walked down a step on the stairs that he hadn’t even known was there. 

‘I just came over to introduce myself and let you know that you might want to come over to our group,’ He gestured at a huddle of boys and girls standing at the very bottom of the staircase. ‘You see we saw you talking to that blood traitor Potter and thought you might need some advising as to how you can tell the right sort.’ 

Rosier smiled wickedly showing two rather large front teeth that were blindingly white against his mahogany skin. Sirius was rooted to the spot. On the one hand if he went with the other purebloods, he wouldn’t be in a world of trouble merely 20 minutes after starting Hogwarts, on the other he really liked James and didn’t want to abandon him. He had opened his mouth to respond when a voice spoke from behind him. 

‘Alright gents?’ Sirius swivelled around and to his surprise Remus stood grinning blithely with a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. Remus repeated the question ‘Alright gents?’ Rosier’s smile only widened.

‘Yes, I was just asking Mr Black here whether he wanted to join us and be with his own sort.’ Rosier stared pointedly at Remus when he said own sort, but Remus showed no signs that he had heard him. 

’Well to be honest mate I don’t think Sirius want to come with you despite your charming nature.’ Rosier’s eyes flashed with anger as he stared a Remus and snapped 

‘I don’t think Sirius has much choice in the matter.’ It was Remus’ turn to get angry now and he sidestepped past Sirius who had just been watching the conversation take place up until this point. Remus stood barely an inch away from Rosier and drew himself up to his fullest height and said something in a low whisper that Sirius did not quite catch. Remus was even scaring Sirius as he stood opposite Rosier, staring him down. After a long pause Rosier finally said 

‘I will leave you then, Sirius.’ And with that he walked over back to his friends leaving Remus and Sirius standing on their own. 

‘Thankyou Remus.’ 

‘No problem preppy, I’ve got to look out for you oiks, don’t I?’ And with that Remus too walked away with Sirius staring after him in awe. What was it about that kid that made him so fascinating to Sirius he didn’t know but he sure as hell wanted to find out? But his train of thought was cut short by James’ hand on his shoulder, now in his school robes Sirius thought he looked a lot less interesting, but he supposed that was just his fascination with muggles. 

‘What are you staring at?’ James asked Sirius with a curious expression on his face.

‘Oh nothing.’ Sirius shrugged deciding that James didn’t need to know about the confrontation, it was best that James knew as little as possible about his family and the company they kept. James had been about to enquire further when the door to the great hall swung open and McGonagall stood there for a moment before speaking loudly and clearly 

‘First years follow me, and I will show you to your sorting!’ They all hurried to follow her through the ornate gold-plated door.

James:

James was feeling much better now in his long wizard robes, they felt big and bold despite everyone else wearing them and somehow, he felt the need to be bigger than others. He was worried about Sirius, when he had come back from changing Sirius’ face had been pale, paler than usual, and he was staring at something, not blinking, he had been about to press the matter when Professor McGonagall interrupted.

He and all the first years were walking down the centre of the great hall between two tables, one of which had blue and bronze tapestries hanging above it, the other was red and gold. James’ heart leapt in excitement this had been what his whole life had been leading up to. All of the hours spent with his father playing quidditch, going on adventures in the woods, running down Diagon Alley away from his mum to go exploring. It felt as though his whole life depended on this one moment and suddenly, he was feeling a little less brave and more sacred, James remembered what his father had told him 'Without fear there can be no courage, it is how you tackle this fear that determines bravery.' With this memory echoing in his head James was filled with a fuel, a burning thirst to be better than he was, he invigorated his strut pushed his shoulders back and held his head high, no longer caring that there were more than a hundred people staring at him, in fact he revelled in the attention. 

They had finally reached the end of the hall when McGonagall came to a halt in front of the large staff table along which all of the teachers sat. In the centre sat Dumbledore, resplendent in poufy magenta robes that reached down to the floor and clung to the wrists at the sleeves. Beside him was an empty chair where James assumed McGonagall regularly sat. There were a handful of other warlocks sitting at the staff table who James didn’t know, then a most unexpected thing happened. A split in the hat opened up and it began to speak.

A thousand years I have sat on a shelf.  
With no one to talk with but myself.  
And still, I wonder whether it is misguided.  
To split you so that you are divided.

Especially in times like these  
When our world is down on its knees  
Begging to be left alone.  
By dark forces unsaid and unknown

So, while it is my purpose to separate `  
I hope that you don’t follow in my wake.  
But it is my duty of you to make.  
Four royal houses that are great.

The good the wise the brave the cunning  
This does not give you liberty for shunning.

One the hat had finished its’ song the great hall burst into a deafening round of applause and after a moment of stunned silence the first years too joined in. James glanced around at his fellow students and saw Remus standing beside the blonde boy they had seen him with before and, much to his distaste, that Lily girl standing with Severus. This brought up a lump in James’ throat, it was a feeling he couldn’t quite place, so thinking that this was not the time nor the place for a session of self analysation, he pushed it aside for now.

McGonagall started to speak again in that Scottish twang that, at first seemed very sharp and cross, but was actually comforting and strong, James quickly added that to his list of reasons why Gryffindor was superior. 

‘Welcome to the sorting! When I call your name, you will come up on the stage and I will place the hat on your head. When it tells you your house you will go sit at your respective table.’ She paused for a moment peering around at all the students as if looking out for wrongdoing. ‘First Avery, Robert.’ 

A tanned boy with a rather crooked nose walked up to the podium and was wearing an expression of dread, he looked like James felt. McGonagall gestured for Avery to sit down on the stool and he obliged, the top of his head disappeared below the brim of the shabby old hat. They waited ten seconds or so, during which Avery turned his head from side to side and then with a bellow that made the majority of people jump ‘SLYTHERIN!’

The Slytherin table burst into a deafening round of applause and proceeded to shake hands with their newest addition while he found a place to sit. Ludo Bagman was next and after a considerably longer amount of time than it took Avery, he was finally sorted into Hufflepuff, James smirked to Sirius, who was standing beside him, everyone who grew up with a wizarding back round knew that Hufflepuff was the destination house for those who weren’t clever, brave or evil enough to be in the other houses.

Then another name was called ‘Black, Sirius.’ 

A ripple of whispered Sirius Black’s went round the Great Hall and all James wanted to do was shout at them ‘OI MIND YOUR OWN!’ But he thought this might just be adding to the amount of attention Sirius was currently getting, so he refrained. Sirius looked like he was about to throw up, he stalked over to the stool, looking even more haughty than before, James thought that it was easy to perceive Sirius as just as his family when he behaved like he was like them. 

Tentatively Sirius lowered himself down on the stool, his back poker straight, his eyes drifted across the room first to his family sitting at the Slytherin table who were glaring at him so coldly that James was surprised he was fainting, the Sirius’ eyes drifted to James himself and James gave a small smile to comfort Sirius. Sirius grinned back slightly and as the hat covered the bridge of his nose James saw a glimmer of something in his eye. Hope. 

They set was there for barely 20 seconds when the hat shouted ‘GRYFFINDOR!’ There was a stunned silence in which Professor McGonagall took the hat of Sirius’ head. Then there was an explosion of noise from the Gryffindor table during which a chant, that may or may not have been started by James, started up ‘WE GOT BLACK! WE GOT BLACK! WE GOT BLACK!’ Sirius face was flushed with nervous excitement and practically ran to the Gryffindor table where he was greeted by two red-headed boys who looked as though they were twins.

A series of students put the hat on and went to their respective house tables and all the while James would have loved to just run straight towards Sirius and envelope him in a hug because with every passing moment Sirius was growing more and more pale. For the first time James hated that he was a Potter, why couldn’t he have been born with a name that was further up in the alphabet then he could go and comfort Sirius.

The next person to get sorted that James recognised was the crying girl on the train whom McGonagall called ‘Evans, Lily!’ Stood up and with a small smile at that Snivellus boy she sat on the stool. James still had no idea why the thought of them together caused a lump to rise uncomfortably in his throat, but it did and had had no idea what it meant. When Lily sat on the stool, she looked around at the group of first years, James supposed she was looking for Snivellus and then he did it. Merlin’s saggy left tit! Why did he do it? He winked! He actually WINKED! 

Evans eyes widened as they disappeared beneath the brim of the hat. James tried to pretend she hadn’t seen but it was clear by her expression that she had. To James’ horror, less than ten seconds later she was sorted into Gryffindor, for the first time in his life he considered not being in Gryffindor. No, he was being stupid, of course he wanted to be in Gryffindor, this is what he had dreamt of his whole life.

Still reeling at what he had done when Lily was about to be sorted, James barely noticed when Remus had gotten sorted into Gryffindor and took a place a couple of seats down from Sirius. He was finally brought back to Earth when the blonde boy that he had seen Remus with had been called up to the hat more than 5 minutes ago and whose face was getting redder and redder by the minute. Seven minutes in and people were starting to murmur, several Gryffindors were beginning to chuckle nervously, Professor McGonagall started walking forward, her black Mary-Janes clicking harshly against the floor. 

Finally, the hat shook itself and bellowed ‘Gryffindor!’ To which a relieved round of applause sounded, it was getting more and more clear that the students, particularly the Gryffindors, were not going to wait much longer for their meal. The blonde boy shuffled towards the Gryffindor table, looking extremely relieved that his sorting was over and was met by a grinning Remus clapping him on the back.

James’ heart skipped a beat. ‘Potter James.’

James fought every urge he had to run the other way and expelled his nervous energy by tossing his hair out of his face grinning wildly and swaggering up to the stool. McGonagall eyed him suspiciously as if trying to detect wrongdoing, before sliding the hat over his head and engulfing him in darkness. ‘Hello.’ A voice spoke to James as if there was someone whispering in his ear. 

‘Hello James responded. Can everyone else hear us.’

‘No, only I can hear you. GRYFFINDOR!’ James jumped, he had expected some kind of test or questionnaire, but it wasn’t like he was complaining. In fact, before Professor McGonagall had time to take the hat off his head, he had already thrust it into her hands and proceeded to run up and down the Gryffindor table, hand outstretched so as to high-five all the Gryffindor students. They hollered and cheered him on until he plonked himself down next to Sirius positively beaming and breathing heavily.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first year Gryffindors taste Hogwarts food for the first time!!!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry haven't updated in a while! Just went back to school and everything has been a bit hectic! No TWs for this chapter and hope you enjoy

Sirius:

Merlin’s beard! What am I going to do! This is the best thing ever but the worst! It’s so very bad! Sirius had no idea what he was feeling. He had numbly stumbled over to the Gryffindor to that chants of ‘We got Black!’ Feeling as though his whole world was collapsing around him, his heart battered against his ribs and he couldn’t bear to even look in the direction of the Slytherin table.

He could feel the glares of his family dissecting every single part of him, defining that which deemed Sirius less than them. He was too scared to meet their eyes in fear of the coldness and unrecognition that would surely be staring back at him, the only saving grace was that he was with James. 

James. Sirius didn’t know why but James gave him a sense of wellness and safety, perhaps it was the warmth of his eyes or the pink of his cheeks but whatever it was Sirius knew that James would be there for him. Perhaps he might tell James of the muggles he had befriended over the summer. Maybe.

Be brave. Brave like Reggie would want you to be. There it was. There was the motivation for carrying on. Sirius did this whenever he felt like giving up, he thought about the most important person in the world to him and asked himself what they would do, what they would want him to do. This always worked. Right now, Regulus would want he, Sirius, to enjoy his first sorting and his first Hogwarts feast with his new friends, stuff his face until he felt sick, and drift off into dreamless sleep. So that was what Sirius resolved to do.

Once James had finally ceased his victory lap around the Gryffindor table, he was red faced and his forehead was glistening with a sheen of sweat, Sirius handed James a napkin which he took gratefully and proceeded to wipe his head with it. The sorting continued for another thirty minutes or so during which nothing particularly interesting occurred and Sirius became more and more agitated by the hunger in his stomach and kept shifting slightly, so as to sit comfortably on the hard wooden bench.

Finally, the last student had been sorted and Dumbledore stood slowly and purposely strode to the podium in the centre of the raised platform on which the staff table rested. 

‘To our new students. Welcome to Hogwarts! To our old students Welcome back! Mr Filch, our very own caretaker, has asked me to remind you that a list of banned objects is available to those who want to view it, and I am sure many of you will want to study it as best you can so that we can avoid rule breaking.’ At this last, Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled with mischief and Sirius could have sworn his eyes rested on James for a fraction of a second longer than anyone else. Sirius was quite put out by this. He could be a much as a troublemaker as James!

‘OI! GET ON WITH IT OR I’LL DIE OF STARVATION!’ 

Sirius didn’t know what had made him say it, he had just felt a sudden twinge of hunger and frustration, so he had shouted. He just thanked the lord that he hadn’t stood up as he almost had, because the staff were looking around wildly trying to guess who had said it. This was a hard task indeed as the whole hall (especially two red headed Gryffindors) were now bellowing their agreement with Sirius’ statement.

Unlike the rest of the teachers Dumbledore wasn’t looking about for the source of the noise but merely chuckling mildly for a minute before holding his hands up to indicate that the students stop shouting. The result was instantaneous, almost all together the whole hall went quiet and stared up at Dumbledore, who was still grinning widely. 

‘Thank you for that assessment,’ He adjusted his half-moon spectacles. ‘Seeing as you all agree with that very keen observation, I think we had better start the feast!’ Dumbledore clapped his hands together and Sirius eyes widened in adoration.

Mountains upon mountains of food had appeared on every inch of the tables that weren’t occupied by ornate silver cutlery, not that same standard that Sirius was used to at home but that was welcomed. Sirius had always been well-fed if nothing else, he had always had anything he wanted in terms of grandeur and riches, but he had never tasted anything as good as Hogwarts food. While at home he was used to rare and exotic foods, they were rich and greasy and Sirius never had the stomach to suit his lifestyle, Hogwarts food was flavoursome and delectable, nothing was to dry, nothing was too spicy, everything was perfect. The only downside to this feast was the company.

Sirius was gaping at the rest of his peers; they were eating like animals! Half of them weren’t even using cutlery and the only other person who seemed particularly bothered by this was James who had a similar look of shock and horror on his face as Sirius. Sirius peered around looking for something, he didn’t quite know what but something else caught his eye. The Lupin boy. 

Sirius had been about to shout over at him and perhaps have a conversation, everyone else was too interested in their food to hold one and if they did it would probably be at the expense of them talking and chewing simultaneously, when he saw something horrifying. Lupin was eating like and animal, his knife and fork lay forgotten and untouched beside his plate and Lupin was using his hands to suck on a chicken bone that was covered in gravy. As if this wasn’t disgusting enough a stream of gravy ran down his thumb. 

Very suddenly Lupin looked up from his food and instead stared straight at Sirius, Sirius hastily tried to rearrange his face, but it was clear that his look of repulsion wasn’t missed by Lupin, nothing was. Thinking that he may as well attempt to better his new dorm mate’s table manners he gestured to his wrist and then pointed at Remus, Remus looked down at his own wrist where the stream of gravy ended, then Remus did something very odd. He smirked at Sirius wickedly and intensely before using his whole tongue to lick the gravy off starting with his writs and ending at the top of the chicken leg. Sirius thought he could have thrown up in his mouth. It was positively deplorable. What kind of animal licks their own wrist, especially when Sirius could see the crimson serviette folded neatly next to Lupin?

Sirius was about to point this out to James to confirm that it wasn’t just him who thought that this was disgusting, but his friend wasn’t looking at him. James was staring at something or rather someone else. It was that crying girl on the train. Sirius was very confused, why would James want to stare at her for, he had never even spoken to her before? Sirius tapped James on the shoulder gently and to his shock James jumped as though he had been electrocuted and went bright red.   
‘Why are you staring at that girl?’

‘What girl? I don’t know what you are talking about!’ James snapped. Feeling rather hurt Sirius turned to the other members of the table, in particular two red-headed twins who were talking in low whispers.

‘Hi, Sirius.’ Sirius held out his hand and to his surprise neither of them shook it.

‘Nononono.’

‘What are we going to do with this one Fab?’

‘Dunno Gid, but we are going to have to whip that pureblood privilege out of him.’

‘Right you are! Listen up kid, I dunno who you grew up around and to be honest I don’t much care, but you need to understand something. It doesn’t matter if you have no wizarding ancestors at all you are just as much a wizard as any pure blood.’

‘Second, we are the resident pranksters of Gryffindor house.’

‘Third, you may want to re-think that accent, at least while in the common room.’

‘You will get eaten alive if you don’t change that.’

‘Maybe tell Potter that too?’

Sirius was stunned but he supposed this was Gryffindor, blunt and straight to the point. 

‘O-okay then. Sorry, who are you?’ The twins grinned to each other before one declared.

‘I’m Gideon he’s Fabian but most just call us Gid and Fab and don’t worry about telling each other apart because we are together all the time.’ 

‘Right.’ Sirius smiled uncertainly, to be honest he felt intimidated. These two were the picture of mischief and discord in short, they were Sirius’ new heroes. Sirius met some other Gryffindors the head boy Bilius Weasley who’s brother was apparently marrying the Prewitt brother’s sister and Lily Evans, Dorcas Meadows, Marlene McKinnon, Mary McDonald and Peter Pettigrew, all of whom were in his year.

There seemed no end to the feast in sight, as every time one of the dessert plates was emptied it instantly refilled meaning that Sirius, who had little self-control to begin with, was struggling to restrain himself from eating more despite the fact that he thought he was going to be sick. It was probably a saving grace when Dumbledore stood and clapped his palms so that the plates of food disappeared.

Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and Sirius outwardly groaned, the twins giggled behind their hands at this, but Sirius was to put out by the fact that James was sleeping on his shoulder to rejoice in that. However much to Sirius’ surprise instead of making a longwinded speech Dumbledore merely said, ‘I think many of us are a little tired out by the celebrations,’ At this he glanced at the Hufflepuff table half of whom were fast asleep, some even lying across their bench, using their robes as a blankets and their friends’ laps as a pillow. 

‘So off to bed all of you. Pip!’ 

There was an explosion of noise from all the house tables as benches were kicked out from underneath legs, sleeping students started awaking with shouts and prefects called to all their house’s first years ‘First years over here! First years!’ 

Sirius glanced at James, he was still asleep, trust James Potter to be able to sleep through a tornado. Sirius sighed and shouted as loud as he possibly could ‘OI YOU LAZY WANKER STOP DROOLING ON MY SHOULDER!’ James gave a yelp and jumped, falling backwards off the bench and disappearing from view.

A moment later his head appeared over the edge of the bench, his hair even more messy than it had been previously, and rubbing his ears which was, in Sirius opinion, an overkill. 

‘Bloody hell Black you’ll give me a heart attack!’ Sirius just laughed at James as he stood and straightened out his robes surreptitiously. Sirius stood and declared that they should probably make their way over to their prefects.

When they got there only about half the Gryffindor first years had made their way over and so they asked questions to their prefects, or rather Sirius did James was staring at that Evans girl again. Their prefects were called Frank and Alice and, judging by the way that Alice was holding Frank’s arm, they were either dating or just very friendly. It was getting late now, and they were still waiting for the rest of the first years, most notably missing was Remus.

About five minutes later the Ravenclaw prefect told Frank he was going to head up to their tower as he was afraid that his first years were going to pass out if they didn’t get to a bed soon To Sirius’ amusement Frank responded with ‘Lucky sod, I’ll be hard pushed to get this lot to get to anything on time. You are lucky you’re a Ravenclaw mate.’

‘Not as lucky as you might think, half our first years are up till six in the morning eating nothing and only drinking coffee by Christmas. Last year we even had a competition to see who could stay awake for 72 hours and get the best marks in class.’

‘Your lot are bloody mad mate!’

‘You say that, but I seem to remember a group of spritely fourth years who managed to set their whole dorm on fire with the help of cigarettes and firewhisky!’ Frank went positively red with pride and embarrassment, taking that as his cue to leave, the Ravenclaw prefect bid them farewell and the other Ravenclaws followed behind, peering at everything with curiosity and fascination.

A few minutes later the blonde boy who Remus had been talking to earlier came running up to them spluttering and red-faced Frank raised a concerned eyebrow at him as he tried to compose himself.   
‘Remus is going to come later he said he had a meeting with Professor McGonagall.’ This piqued Sirius’ interests. Why was Remus going to see McGonagall so soon? But he was soon brought out of his reverie by James elbowing him in the ribs, indicating that they should follow Frank who had already set off into the entrance hole.


End file.
